---
title: The Governors, however, contented themselves with exchanging signifi… — Winning Buddha's smile · tree and pragmatics
description: The Governors, however, contented themselves with exchanging significant glances, but they did not utter a word in support of the Minister’s proposal. Who acts: Governors, Minister. A sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 6, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of
---

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# Winning Buddha's smile, Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 6, sentence 12

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The Governors, however, contented themselves with exchanging significant glances, but they did not utter a word in support of the Minister’s proposal.

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**Who acts:** Governors, Minister · **What happens:** content, exchange, not utter, support, propose · **To what, where:** Governors, significant glances, word, support, proposal

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This is a sentence of «Winning Buddha's smile», Winning Buddha’s Smile, part 6. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Governors, Minister), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg78208:8:12
# text = The Governors, however, contented themselves with exchanging significant glances, but they did not utter a word in support of the Minister’s proposal.
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	2	det	_	_
2	Governors	Governor	PROPN	NNPS	Number=Plur	6	nsubj	_	SpaceAfter=No
3	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	2	punct	_	_
4	however	however	ADV	RB	_	6	advmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
5	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	_
6	contented	content	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
7	themselves	themselves	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs|Reflex=Yes	6	obj	_	_
8	with	with	SCONJ	IN	_	9	mark	_	_
9	exchanging	exchange	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	6	advcl	_	_
10	significant	significant	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	11	amod	_	_
11	glances	glance	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	9	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
12	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	17	punct	_	_
13	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
14	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	17	nsubj	_	_
15	did	do	AUX	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
16	not	not	PART	RB	Polarity=Neg	17	advmod	_	_
17	utter	utter	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	6	conj	_	_
18	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	19	det	_	_
19	word	word	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obj	_	_
20	in	in	ADP	IN	_	21	case	_	_
21	support	support	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
22	of	of	ADP	IN	_	26	case	_	_
23	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	24	det	_	_
24	Minister	Minister	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	26	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
25	’s	's	PART	POS	_	24	case	_	_
26	proposal	proposal	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	21	nmod	_	SpaceAfter=No
27	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	6	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **content** | past | the Governors | Governors *= governor* |  |  |  | however *property* | vn amuse-31.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Stimulus themselves=Experiencer |
| 2 | **exchange** | gerund | the Governors *not said here* | significant glances |  |  |  |  | vn exchange-13.6.1 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent glance=Theme |
| 3 | **not** **utter** *speech: other* | past · do-support | Governors *= governor* | a word |  | support of the Minister's proposal |  |  | vn say-37.7-1 «NP V NP.topic»: agent=Agent word=Topic |
| 4 | **support** |  |  | the Minister's proposal |  |  |  |  | nom support «act transitive»: of=patient |
| 5 | **propose** |  | the Minister |  |  |  |  |  | nom proposal «communication intransitive»: poss=agent |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Winning Buddha's smile», Project Gutenberg book 78208 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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